Working Ranch Magazine March/April 2025

toppin’ out BY TIM O’BYRNE California Cattlemen’s Association Podcast Talks Wildfire

gives. And that’s when those wind speeds come through and they hit all those passes and canyons and they start funneling through the coast. So that’s not natural burning. It’s pushing it downslope towards the ocean. Natural burning is upslope and what follows is topography. So that’s the first problem. And we have these things called pres sure gradients. And the pressure gra dients there were about minus seven, minus eight millibar, which equates to 70 to 100 mile an hour winds. To answer your question, was it stoppable? No. So with that going on in the Santa Ana winds, it’s a rescue and save lives

EDITOR: Since WR has many loyal readers and followers in California, I thought it might be a good idea to touch base with them regarding the fire situation statewide. I tuned into S5 E2 of their excellent podcast, The Sorting Pen , hosted by Katie Roberti with guest California Cattlemen’s Association (CCA) Fire Subcommittee Chair Anthony Stornetta. One of the key elements of the CCA’s concerns are the fact that eight of the 10 most destructive wild fires in California history, and 10 of the largest wildfires, have occurred in the past 10 years. Here are some portions of the episode I felt were important to many of our readers.

comes through Las Vegas, the Mojave. And it fights and fights the high pressure versus the low pressure com ing off the coast. And those things fight so much that finally something

KR Explain to us your perspective on how these fires got to be as destruc tive and out of control as they did. AS This fire started during a time when there’s decadent fuels, large fuel beds. We had the Santa Ana winds that came through. The relative humid ities were low. The live fuel moisture is very low. And just remember, LA, the last time they had rain was last May. So when you have bad alignment, then this wind pattern comes in, there’s no stopping it.

[The Santa Ana wind] starts way out in the Great Basin,

Season 5, Episode 2 of the CCA podcast The Sorting Pen, with guest Anthony Stornetta, San Luis Obispo County cattle rancher, Deputy Fire Chief of Operations for Santa Barbara County Fire Department, and CCA’s Fire Subcommittee Chair. For the entire podcast, head here https://calcattlemen.

org/2025/01/21/sorting-through-the la-wildfires-with-cca-fire-subcom mittee-chair-anthony-stornetta/. 14 I MARCH 2025 WORKING RANCH audited readers run 21 million head of beef cattle.